Authored by Jim Quinn via The Burning Platform,
Tariffs are going to Make America Great Again!!!!
Our deficit problems will be cured. The national debt will decline. Our fiscal nightmare is over. Right?
Trump is so excited, he can’t sleep. He’s boasting about the billions in tariff revenues at midnight.
He ain’t wrong. The chart below clearly shows the massive surge in tariff revenue generated by his policies since taking office. The total tariff revenues in the 6 months since he has taken office are $120 billion, versus the $50 billion taken in those same 6 months in the prior year. Based on current trends, Trump’s tariffs could bring in close to $400 billion on an annualized basis. Not too shabby compared to the $100 billion taken in the years prior to his new tariffs.
Trump isn’t bashful about hyping what he believes are outstanding achievements, like quadrupling tariff revenues and forcing those foreign countries to “pay their fair share”. The numbers don’t lie, but a little perspective on the scale and ultimate impact of these tariffs may be helpful.
The national debt is on course to increase by $1.9 trillion this fiscal year ending 9/30/25. It is up $700 billion since Trump took office. The Big Beautiful Bill didn’t cut one dime from the budget. The national debt will increase by about $2 trillion in the next fiscal year, and the one after that, and the one after that, and the one after that. You get the picture. Increased debt until economic collapse.
The national debt will increase by approximately $5.5 billion per day forever, because the spending is on automatic pilot. Trump and your corrupt congress maggots have no intention of cutting any spending. A recession, war, or another fake pandemic would just drive the spending higher. So basically, the $300 billion in added tariff revenue will be frittered away by your government in less than 2 months. And if Trump goes through with his tariff rebate idea, the revenues will evaporate quicker, not that we should mind having the money in our pockets, rather than Nancy Pelosi’s and Chuck Schumer’s.
I know the Trump cheerleaders and social media influencers have been ecstatic that the tariffs have not created the dreaded surge in inflation predicted by the Fed and other economic “experts”. As the chart clearly shows, the tariffs have only been in place for 4 months. Does anyone understand the inflation impact is going to lag the implementation period? Does anyone understand there are only two possibilities regarding these tariffs? – either the corporations buying the goods wholesale eat the increase and decrease their profits or they pass along the price increases to the customers.
In the first case, corporate profits will decline and the stock market (at all-time highs and valuations) will likely decline significantly. In the more likely case, the corporations will pass the price increases to their customers, generating an increase in inflation and further robbing the average household of their spending power. Of course, Trump will instruct his new head of the BLS to fake the CPI number even more than it is already faked, to hide the real inflation caused by his tariffs.
I think a personal anecdote I’ve experienced will show you the devious methods corporations will use to pass these tariffs along. I have been buying a pack of coated paper plates at Wal-Mart for years. The pack contained 70 paper plates. Within the last four months, the pack was reduced to 50 plates, for the same price. They know the average dolt, after years of government schooling, is deficient in math skills, so they would not realize they just experienced a 40% increase in price per plate. This will show up nowhere in the fake BLS numbers. Shrinkflation is just as bad as inflation, but they can hide it and pretend all is well, while maintaining their profits.
Tariffs sounded great on the campaign trail. Foreign countries were clearly taking advantage of the U.S. through unfair trade practices. Trump’s threats and follow through on those threats have forced concessions from dozens of major trading partners. But his threatening rhetoric hasn’t worked on China, Brazil, India or the other BRIC countries, as they maneuver to replace the U.S. ruling economic empire. And now using tariffs/sanctions against Russia, China, and India to force Putin into an unacceptable peace plan with Ukraine/NATO is rhyming with FDR’s oil embargo on Japan in 1941.
The unintended consequences of his actions are yet to be revealed, but ultimately these tariffs should be judged by their overall results, rather than the intentions and narratives surrounding them.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ZeroHedge.
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